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Abolitionism: A Very Short Introduction
Richard S. Newman
The abolitionist movement launched the global human rights struggle in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, redefining the meaning of equality throughout the Atlantic world. In the ...
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The Abrahamic Religions: A Very Short Introduction
Charles L. Cohen
Connected by their mutual—if differentiated—veneration of the One God proclaimed by Abraham, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam compose a family of related traditions. The Abrahamic ...
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Accounting: A Very Short Introduction
Christopher Nobes
If you read the ‘business pages’ of a newspaper or if you listen to the financial news on the television or radio, you will often hear terms such as ‘liability’, ‘balance sheet’ or ...
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Adam Smith: A Very Short Introduction
Christopher J. Berry
In 1776, Adam Smith (1723–90) wrote The Wealth of Nations, the foundational book that led to him being called the ‘father of economics’. However, Adam Smith was far more than an economist. ...
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Adolescence: A Very Short Introduction
Peter K Smith
Adolescence is a turbulent period to live through. Marking the transition from the world of childhood to adult life, the adolescent faces many challenges and opportunities, including ...
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Advertising: A Very Short Introduction
Winston Fletcher
Advertising: A Very Short Introduction dispels the myths surrounding the advertising industry. Advertising is a diverse entity, and campaigns work (or fail to work) in a ...
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Aerial Warfare: A Very Short Introduction
Frank Ledwidge
Aerial warfare has dominated war-making for over 100 years, and despite regular announcements of its demise, it shows no sign of becoming obsolete. Aerial Warfare: A Very Short Introduction ...
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Aesthetics: A Very Short Introduction
Bence Nanay
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of art, beauty, and taste. It doesn’t just consider traditional artistic experiences such as artworks in a museum or an opera ...
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African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction
Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjure, African American ...
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African History: A Very Short Introduction
John Parker and Richard Rathbone
African History: A Very Short Introduction looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented by examining the unity and diversity of ...
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African Politics: A Very Short Introduction
Ian Taylor
African Politics: A Very Short Introduction explores how politics is practised on the African continent, providing an overview of the different states and their systems. It ...
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African Religions: A Very Short Introduction
Jacob K. Olupona
African Religions: A Very Short Introduction offers a wide-ranging look at the myriad indigenous religious traditions on the African continent, drawing on archeological ...
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Ageing: A Very Short Introduction
Nancy A. Pachana
Ageing: A Very Short Introduction discusses the lifelong dynamic changes in biological, psychological, and social functioning involved in ageing. Increased lifespans have ...
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Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction
Robin Le Poidevin
Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction asks if there is more to agnosticism than merely the absence of belief. What is agnosticism? Who were the first to call themselves ...
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Agriculture: A Very Short Introduction
Paul Brassley and Richard Soffe
Agriculture: A Very Short Introduction explains what farmers do and why they do it. Beginning with the most basic resource, the soil, it shows why it is important, and how ...
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Albert Camus: A Very Short Introduction
Oliver Gloag
Albert Camus is one of the best known philosophers of the twentieth century, as well as a widely read novelist. Active in the first half of the twentieth century, his views contributed to ...
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Alexander the Great: A Very Short Introduction
Hugh Bowden
Alexander the Great: A Very Short Introduction demonstrates the profound influence the legends of Alexander's life have had on our historical understanding of him by focusing ...
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Algebra: A Very Short Introduction
Peter M. Higgins
Algebra marked the beginning of modern mathematics, moving it beyond arithmetic, which involves calculations featuring given numbers, to problems in which some quantities are unknown. Now, ...
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American Business History: A Very Short Introduction
Walter A. Friedman
American Business History: A Very Short Introduction looks at the rise of the American economy from its colonial and frontier beginnings. What made the United States an ...
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American Cultural History: A Very Short Introduction
Eric Avila
American Cultural History: A Very Short Introduction provides a chronological look at American culture—the values, attitudes, beliefs, and myths of a particular society and the ...
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American Foreign Relations: A Very Short Introduction
Andrew Preston
For better or worse, be it militarily, politically, economically, technologically, or culturally, Americans have had a profound impact on the wider world beyond them. American Foreign ...
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American History: A Very Short Introduction
Paul S. Boyer
American History: A Very Short Introduction spans the earliest migrations to the present looking at the United States's failures to live up to its oft-stated ideals. The ...
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American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction
David A. Gerber
American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction examines the many legal efforts to curb immigration and to define who is and is not an American. It looks at immigration from ...
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American Legal History: A Very Short Introduction
G. Edward White
Law has played a central role in American history. From colonial times to the present, law has reflected the changing society in which legal decisions have been made and has played a ...
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American Military History: A Very Short Introduction
Joseph T. Glatthaar
American Military History: A Very Short Introduction outlines the forces shaping the American military for the past 400 years. Since the colonial period, the United States has ...
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American Naval History: A Very Short Introduction
Craig L. Symonds
American Naval History: A Very Short Introduction charts the history of the United States Navy from its birth during the American Revolution, through its emergence as a global ...
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American Political Parties and Elections: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
L. Sandy Maisel
American Political Parties and Elections: A Very Short Introduction examines the electoral process in the United States and explains why it is widely misunderstood. Why is participation in ...
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American Politics: A Very Short Introduction
Richard M. Valelly
American Politics: A Very Short Introduction introduces the vital elements of American politics. Using an historical-institutional approach, it explains how the American ...
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The American Presidency: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
Charles O. Jones
The Founding Fathers were dedicated to the project of creating an American government both functional and incapable of devolving into tyranny. To do this, they intentionally decentralized ...
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The American Revolution: A Very Short Introduction
Robert J. Allison
Between 1760 and 1800, the American people cast off British rule to create a new nation and a radically new form of government based on the idea that people have the right to govern ...
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American Slavery: A Very Short Introduction
Heather Andrea Williams
American Slavery: A Very Short Introduction traces the development of American slavery, from the Portuguese capture of Africans in the 1400s until its abolition following the ...
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The American South: A Very Short Introduction
Charles Reagan Wilson
The American South: A Very Short Introduction explores the American South, a distinctive place with a dramatic history. It is a cultural crossroads, where Western Europe met ...
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The American West: A Very Short Introduction
Stephen Aron
The American West: A Very Short Introduction tracks “the West” from the building of the Cahokia Mounds around 900 ad, through early encounters with Europeans, to the Newlands ...
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American Women's History: A Very Short Introduction
Susan Ware
What does U.S. history look like with women at the center of the story? From Pocahantas to military women serving in the Iraq war, American Women's History: A Very Short Introduction ...
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Anaesthesia: A Very Short Introduction
Aidan O'Donnell
Anaesthesia: A Very Short Introduction examines the modern anaesthetic practice. Anaesthesia is a mysterious and sometimes threatening process. What is anaesthesia? How is it ...
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Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short introduction
Michael Beaney
Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction introduces some of the key ideas of the founders of analytic philosophy—Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, Ludwig ...
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Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction
Colin Ward
Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction explores key anarchist thinkers from Kropotkin to Chomsky and considers anarchism from a variety of perspectives: theoretical, historical, ...
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Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction
Karen Radner
Assyria was one of the most influential kingdoms of the Ancient Near East. Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction sketches the history of Assyria from city state to empire, from the ...
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Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
Ian Shaw
Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction explores the history and culture of pharaonic Egypt, including ideas about Egyptian kingship, religion, ethics, customs, and writing ...
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Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction
Christina Riggs
What did Egyptian art and architecture mean to the people who first made and used it—and why has it had such an enduring appeal? Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short ...
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Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction
Paul Cartledge
Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction takes the polis as its starting point and uses the history of eleven major Greek cities to illuminate the most important and ...
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The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction
Amanda H. Podany
The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction describes a momentous time in human history and explains why the ancient Near East is known as the ‘cradle of civilization’. ...
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Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
Julia Annas
Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction introduces ancient debates and focuses on important and revealing features of the subject providing a sense of its freshness and ...
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Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction
Harry Sidebottom
Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction examines all aspects of ancient warfare, from philosophy and strategy to the technical skills needed to fight. How did wars shape ...
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Angels: A Very Short Introduction
David Albert Jones
Angels: A Very Short Introduction outlines prominent stories and speculations about angels in Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and post-Christian spiritualties. What are angels? ...
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Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction
Mark Chapman
Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction highlights the diversity of contemporary Anglicanism by exploring its history, theology, and structures. Although originally united by ...
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The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction
John Blair
The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction covers the era from the emergence of the earliest English settlements around the year ad 450 to the Norman victory in 1066 ...
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Animal Behaviour: A Very Short Introduction
Tristram D. Wyatt
How animals behave is crucial to their survival and reproduction. Animal Behaviour: A Very Short Introduction discusses how animal behaviour has evolved, how behaviours develop in each ...
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The Animal Kingdom: A Very Short Introduction
Peter Holland
The Animal Kingdom: A Very Short Introduction presents a modern tour of the animal kingdom. Beginning with the definition of animals, this VSI goes on to show the high-level ...
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Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction
David DeGrazia
Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction explores the implications for how we should treat animals in connection with our diet, zoos, and research. Most people are opposed to ...
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